3rd Suspect Held In Rabin Killing

Settlers Flee Crackdown

Israel Must Get Tough With Those Who Incite Violence, Peres Asserts

November 09, 1995|By Tom Hundley, Tribune Staff Writer.

JERUSALEM — Israeli police on Wednesday arrested a third suspect in the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, and militant Jewish settlers went underground to escape an expanding crackdown on far-Right extremists.

Saying those who incite violence should be disarmed, acting Prime Minister Shimon Peres told his Cabinet Wednesday the government must "not hesitate to use all means at our disposal against . . . the instigators as well as those who pull the trigger."

Senior ministers are considering tougher options for people suspected of incitement, such as prosecuting them in military courts, arresting them without charges, disarming them, limiting their movements, taking down their slogans and restricting media from reporting any "fighting words."

The government also announced that a commission of inquiry would look into security lapses that allowed the gunman to get within point-blank range of the prime minister.

Avishai Raviv, the leader of a small extremist group known by the acronym Eyal-Jewish Fighting Organization-was brought before a Tel Aviv magistrate on charges of conspiracy and failure to prevent murder.

Israel Radio reported the arrest of two more suspects late Wednesday, but police would not confirm this.

Already in police custody are the confessed assassin, Yigal Amir, 25, and his brother, Hagai, 27, who has admitted that he made the hollow-tipped bullets that were used in the murder.

Raviv called Israeli army radio from a hiding place on Tuesday and said Yigal Amir was a member of his organization.

At Wednesday's hearing, Raviv admitted he had heard Amir talk about the need for killing Rabin, but said he didn't take such talk seriously.

"Words are one thing and actions are another. According to Jewish law, murder is forbidden," Raviv told the court.

Raviv also said in court that he was attending a nearby counter-demonstration on the night Rabin was shot at a Tel Aviv peace rally.

Eyal, Raviv's organization, appears to be a right-wing hate group inspired by Meir Kahane, the American-born rabbi who was fatally shot in New York five years ago.

It was formed sometime in the early 1990s and was known to Israeli security police as a group of perhaps a dozen activists with a proclivity for offensive rhetoric but few deeds.

Raviv previously had been involved in Kahane Chai, an offshoot of Kach, the organization Kahane founded in Israel. Raviv and Amir apparently met at Bar-Ilan University, where both studied.

Amir has told police he acted alone. If it turns out that he was yet another disciple of Kahane, it would add to the bloody legacy of the rabbi, whose Arab-hating philosophy has spawned many violent deeds, including Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein's massacre of some 30 Palestinians in a Hebron mosque last year.

Many far-right extremists kept a low profile Wednesday.

In central Hebron, settlers who live in the Beit Hadassah apartment building remained subdued. Men who normally carry government-issued automatic rifles walked about unarmed. About half the families were not home.

Back in Jerusalem, Peres' Cabinet decided to establish a special commission of inquiry to examine the failure of Israel's elaborate state security apparatus to protect Rabin.

The Cabinet took the action after listening to a preliminary report from the head of the Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security service, who admitted that a "serious technical failure in planning . . . had resulted in a serious operational failure."

One theory that has been circulating in Israel is that Rabin's security guards may have been fooled into thinking the attack was a drill.

According to accounts by Rabin's driver, Amir shouted, "It's nothing, it's nothing" as he fired his pistol three times, hitting Rabin twice.

In an interview the day after the assassination, Leah Rabin, the prime minister's widow, said that when the shooting occurred, bodyguards hustled her away from the scene and assured her the gun was a toy.

Rabin was helped into the car by his injured bodyguard, the only one to attend him en route even though there were medics and doctors in the vicinity.

There also were unconfirmed reports that the assassin may have had credentials that allowed him to linger in the motor-pool area where the attack took place.

Shin Bet's preliminary findings shed little light on how the security breakdown occurred, but pointed a finger at the head of the Shin Bet's protection division, who was present at the peace rally.